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Portsmouth Police Department entry pay
What this agency pays a new officer to start, and how that compares with the rest of the country.
Entry pay onlyEvery salary here is what an officer is paid on day one, out of the academy — base pay on a 40-hour week, with no overtime, shift differential, specialty or education pay counted. Nobody stays on it.
Portsmouth Police Department starts at $58,729 a year — about $28.24 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $9,661 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $12,535 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC run about 2% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $59,964 would somewhere at average prices — $1,235 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 90, where goods are 97. Based on price levels for this metropolitan area, from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024. The salary above is what the employer publishes; this line is our arithmetic on it, and nothing on this site is ranked on it.
How big the department isPortsmouth Police Department reported 160 sworn officers and 49 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 96,362.A rate is only meaningful for a city department, where the population served is the city’s own. Reporting to the FBI is voluntary, so a count can reflect a partial return as easily as a small agency, and the FBI asks that agencies not be compared on staffing. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, Full-time Law Enforcement Employees, 2025.
What Portsmouth says about itself
The Portsmouth Police Department is dedicated to the protection and security of all people and, in partnership with our community, to providing quality public safety services while affording dignity and respect to every individual.
What Portsmouth does
Portsmouth Police Department provides municipal law-enforcement service and trains recruits through a 16-week Basic Academy before promotion to Police Officer.
Shifts at Portsmouth
Portsmouth officers work 12-hour shifts with every other weekend off, which the department calls one of the most reliable work schedules in the region.
The agency publishes the shift length but not a named cycle. These are the 12-hour rotations departments most often build on it: Pitman, 4 on, 4 off, DuPont, Panama.
Every other weekend off is a fortnightly cycle, not a weekly one — which is exactly the pattern a paper calendar loses. Build it once in BlueShifts and the free weekends are marked months ahead, so you can say yes to something without counting back.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 15 August 2026. City of Portsmouth — Certified Police Officer posting, job number FY2025-01388, opened 4 May 2026 — open the source document
The City of Portsmouth advertises a Certified Police Officer salary of $58,729.00 to $75,606.38 a year, a full-time regular post open continuously. Officers work twelve-hour shifts with every other weekend off, which the department calls one of the most reliable schedules in the region, and recruits collect their full salary while training at the Hampton Roads Criminal Justice Training Academy. Signing bonuses are $1,000 for new recruits and $1,500 for experienced officers.
Entry-level base salary only. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift
differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded, so most officers earn more
than this.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
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How this level compares
Where Portsmouth sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.
| Level | Lowest | Median | Highest | Agencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| Federal | $70,477 | $73,502 | $86,530 | 5 |
| Territory | $16,640 | $28,236 | $43,354 | 9 |
Federal agencies pay the most to start
The middle federal agency starts at $73,502 — about $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Portsmouth starts at $58,729, so $12,558 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Portsmouth Police Department officer make?
Portsmouth Police Department starts a new officer on $58,729 a year, about $28.24 an hour on a 2,080-hour year. That is base salary before overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials and locality pay, so most serving officers earn more. The figure comes from City of Portsmouth — Certified Police Officer posting, job number FY2025-01388, opened 4 May 2026.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Virginia?
It ranks #23 of 36 agencies we have verified in Virginia — 13 pay less, 22 pay more in the state — and #1,295 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $9,661 below, and against other municipal agencies $12,535 below.
What shifts do Portsmouth Police Department officers work?
Portsmouth officers work 12-hour shifts with every other weekend off, which the department calls one of the most reliable work schedules in the region. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Portsmouth Police Department side by side with any other agency on the site — the two salaries, what each is worth once local prices are counted, and which comes out ahead.
The agencies either side of it
Other agencies in VA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Portsmouth | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arlington County Police Department | County | 299 | $90,012 | +$31,283 | #215 |
| 2 | Falls Church Police Department | Municipal | 32 | $76,400 | +$17,671 | #496 |
| 3 | Alexandria Police Department | Municipal | 264 | $75,000 | +$16,271 | #560 |
| 4 | Fairfax County Police Department | County | 1,390 | $74,035 | +$15,306 | #593 |
| 5 | Prince William County Police Department | County | 656 | $74,000 | +$15,271 | #595 |
| 6 | Loudoun County Sheriff's Office | County | 648 | $70,955 | +$12,226 | #727 |
| 7 | Leesburg Police Department | Municipal | 74 | $68,500 | +$9,771 | #834 |
| 8 | Prince William County Sheriff's Office | County | 656 | $66,596 | +$7,867 | #941 |
| 9 | Henrico County Police Division | County | 628 | $65,959 | +$7,230 | #968 |
| 10 | Fairfax County Sheriff's Office | County | 433 | $64,997 | +$6,268 | #1,025 |
| 11 | Richmond Police Department | Municipal | 608 | $63,360 | +$4,631 | #1,091 |
| 12 | Hanover County Sheriff's Office | County | 247 | $63,345 | +$4,616 | #1,093 |
Base pay is only part of the year
Whatever the figure above, the rotation is what decides your year — which weekends you lose, when the changeovers land, what you can plan around. Save yours once and BlueShifts shows it a year ahead, with the off-duty jobs you take and what each one paid.
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